A Detroit company will demolish the historic Willow Run bomber plant, one of the important components of the Arsenal of Democracy and home to the woman who became most associated with the iconic World War II image of Rosie the Riveter.
Once the plant is demolished, it will be replaced by a test track and research center for connected vehicles, the trust managing former General Motors properties said today.
Nathan Bomey in the Detroit Free Press reports Devon Industrial Group won a bid to knock down the 5- million-square-foot factory, and Detroit-based Walbridge Development LLC plans to develop the site into an advanced vehicle research center.
The Revitalizing Automotive Communities Environmental Response (RACER) trust, which controls property left behind in GM’s 2009 bankruptcy, said the demolition process would take about a year.
The plant was built early in World War II by Henry Ford to mass produce the B-24 Liberator bomber, and it eventually produced almost half of all the Liberators built. Albert Kahn, the famed architect, designed the factory.
The Rosie the Riveter figure that was used to inspire the workforce -- and the country -- during the war became most closely associated with Rose Will Monroe, a Kentucky native who, like tens of thousands others, moved to Michigan during World War II and worked as a riveter at the Willow Run factory.
Monroe was asked to star in a promotional film about the war effort; "Rosie" went on to become perhaps the most widely recognized icon of that era.
